Thursday, July 29, 2010

I won't be playing in any tournaments while I'm there, but I do plan to be picking up some new Malifaux stuff and with that in mind Im trying to finish out everything I can painting wise before I add a brand new crew to my set. So yesterday I picked up Bete Noir from GPC and she went straight from the box to the painting table.

She took a very long time so i threw in a commision model to work on while I waited for her to ink to dry and what not. This is Rockett's Spirit of Flame, the Totem for Sonnia Criid.

I will be hitting the painting pretty hard over the next couple days. Only 8 Ressers, 2 Arcanists, 1 guildy, and 4 outcasts left in my malifaux que. With some perseverence and a bit of free time I hope to knock most of it out.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Salamanders are getting pushed to the back burner for a while. The damn army is getting really expensive and I just don't have the time for them right now. It also hurts that I haven't played 40k in almost 8 months. I won't sell them since this is like the 4th army of marines I've started to put together and quit half way. I know I will come back to them at some point, but I honestly have no idea when.

On a more positive GW note, Im considering breaking the Chaos back out for a few games, and the Ogre Kingdoms are 1 maneater + 1 conversion away from being a full 2k army.

I took a bit off of my painting mostly out of laziness i guess, but with so few models left to paint I decided to try and crank them out. Mortimer the Grave Digger was recently given a nice boost, he is now allowed to cheat the Exhume flip. For those who aren't familiar with this, Mortimer has a spell that says if cast you flip the top card of your deck, if its a crow place a corpse token near Mortimer. It wasn't a flip your could cheat, so it was an ability that defined the model but only worked 25% of the time. Well Wyrd decided that wasn't cutting it and gave Morty the boost we rezzers have been hoping for since he was released. You may now drop a crow from your hand to pop out a corpse token, this will seriously buff Nicodem, but will also allow every master the chance to use Mort and not feel like your wasting 7 points.

Friday, July 16, 2010

So not too long ago Games Workshop rolled out their newest edition of warhammer fantasy. Since I haven't played Fantasy for over a year, and It is pretty much my least favorite game I ignored it. I let the edition change slip by and I carried on. But about a week ago I started hearing about all the new rules for the game and it started to intrigue me. See Fantasy was my first nerd game other than Magic. It was the game that got me into gaming. So it will always hold a special place in my heart. So I started poking around the GW store in Fair Oakes asking questions about the changes and learning the new ins and outs.

It took about a week of pondering but eventually I broke down, chose Ogre Kingdoms, and ordered a set of Bulls off Ebay for about 50% retail. I then hit the Store and picked up the Book and the batalion box. A guy at the store sold me a Tyant and Butcher for 50% retail, and Im in business. Im 1 model away from a 1500 point army already, and its been less than a week. Some Painted Ogre Bulls will get posted up soon I hope. But in all my excitement I've even got Rockett and to a lesser extent Ellen and Alex West (he might actually get back into Chaos), interested in trying 8th ed fantasy out.

So here are some changes that I like:

Magic is considerablly weaker, the spells are still powerful but the defense is easier and the casting abilites more limited. Instead of taking mage after mage to stack up on power dice you roll 2D6 and can use those to cast spells, you also roll a D6 for each mage, each 6 gives you 1 more die. Your opponent gets the higher of your 2d6 in dispell dice. Very easy to do, no more I took 4 mages you took 0 so my magic phase will destroy your army, etc. To help aleviate the weakened magic, you get to add your Wizards casting level to any spell he casts. Its a nice boost.

Supporting Attacks are also a new add, your second rank can throw in an attack. Its a nice way to help represent the swirling Melee that should be occuring. Monsters, such as ogres, get to add in 3 attacks, which actually helps make them playable =).

Only 25% of your army can be used for your lord. This is huge since it means Archaeon, Thorgrim, Teclis, and all those other douche bags won't be hitting the table against me any time soon. Im a huge fan of this rule.

New Charge Ranges, this is throwing me way off. But I really like the idea, I just need to get used to it. Charging is now roll 2d6 and add my Move value. Horsemen roll 3D6 and drop the lowest. It makes charges go a lot further for some armies, like dwarves, but also adds in some odd randomness. I dislike the randomness part of it, but I like the longer charges. Dwarves could not beat Lizards because Skinks have shooting and can walk faster than dwarves can run. It was literally impossible without a lot of luck. So I need to get used to it, but I think in the end I will really like that change.

The last one I am on the Fence about. When a Unit as more ranks than another Unit its fighting It gets Stubborn, meaning no matter how badly I beat them in combat they get to try to stand on their base leadership. Its been a pain for Ogres, sure I get boat load more attacks, but I almost never get to run down my opponents after a single combat, because they test on base leadership. It sticks me in combat longer than I'd like, but I think its a decent rule, too many games are lost by a single bad leadership check, so I'm glad to see them addressing that.

Overal I've enjoyed my 2-3 1k point games of Fantasy. Im taking it slow, I have a few more models to buy, I think im gonna use a little plastic dinosaur for my Rhinox Rider until the plastic kit comes out.. should be great. Next buy Ogre Ninja!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

So I made my way out to the Parlor yesterday looking for a game or 2 of Malifaux. I got there at 4:30 and had to wait a little while until someone showed up. Maybe it was an off week, but the Tuesday crowd wasn't there. I ended up facing off against a guy named Shawn who was using Sonnia Criid.

We both draw Assassinate, which I know will be an uphill battle against Criid, since she is a tough cookie for a caster to kill. He moves Criid and the Proxy down my left flank. The Executioner goes right and the stalkers and Sam go down the middle. I throw Ice pillars in Criid's face to try to keep her spells out of the fight. I realize at this point Criid is too far from Sam and the stalkers to stop my magic. Im holding one hell of a fate hand here so I move my Ice Gamin up to Ice Mirror into his clump of guys. He ends up blowing the poor little Golem away with a double crit gun shot from a stalker. But not to be deterred from my awesome plan, I send up a Hoarcat into the Gamin's place. He shoots again, but I cheat my defense up to prevent the cat from Dying. Rasputina, not wanting to take anymore chances moves up right behind the cats to give them Frozen Heart. She arcs Decembers Curse into the lead Stalker and I decide to cheat in the Red Joker and a soul stone just to be sure he won't block me. The damage is pretty savage. Both Stalkers are almost dead and Sam is just around half hit points. Since the red jocker allowed me to trigger Over-Power I hit them again, this time with a Soul Stone and the 13 of Masks. Same deal, I did massive damage, killing both stalkers who then blew up and finished off Sam. So with 3 of his models down turn 2 I figured the game was in the bag.

My cats all went in and started to take bites out of the Executioner and Criid. I killed off the Executioner, but he got his slow to die swing first. He hit with like a 12 and was getting a double crit off it. I was pretty bummed because he was going to kill my poor kitty and heal back to full, that is until he flipped the Black Joker for damage. My Cat ate his remains and healed back to full. Criid then killed off that cat even going so far as to turn it into a witchling stalker. My next cat came up and promptly ate the brand new stalker. The big cat and the little one both charged in and started going to work on Criid. But were basically attacking into a her Soulstone Cache, and not hurting her enough. She threw up Inferno which does 3 damage to anything in 3 inches at the turns end, killing my Sabertooth. With my last Hoarcat in combat the game might come down to Initative. I still had the Schemes in my favor, and with ice wall I was sure I could keep Raspy standing for 2 more turns, but this was easier. I flipped a 4 and he flipped a 7. Feeling ballsy I spent a soul stone to re-flip my Init, getting a 12. With that my final hoar cat proceeded to shred Criid to Ribons.

It was a much closer game then I thought it would be, but basically I got 1 spell off with Raspy and then she was useless because he kept everything in Criid's protection bubble. Still a win is a win, and I'll take it.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

I started on Sonia Criid for Rockett, but she is a major pain in the ass. She will no doubt take a new sitting to finish. But I got a ton of painting done yesterday. I painted up my Spiders for my archanists. I didn't take a picture since I already posted some up a while back. they look the same. I was playing with my Green Paints and kinda ended up painting my drop pod. It was mostly experimenting with colors and then bam it was finished. Its a simple scheme. I was considering doing more, but Honestly Im just trying to get the salamanders table ready, so this will have to do.

After getting very frustrated by Criid, I took out Rasputina and gave her a go. Much less annoying detail here. She came together quickly and nicely.

Friday, July 2, 2010

Well im not really a part of it, but my favorite animated show has been put back on the air. Tivo has been kind enough to record the new episodes for me since I bowl thursdays and might otherwise miss the return of FUTURAMA!!!!

So far the episodes have lived up to the original seasons and been hilarious. I'm waiting to make sure the show stays the course. When Family Guy came back the show upped the absurd humor and strayed away from its roots, which is why I stopped watching it. Im hoping Futurama can live up to its past and keep rocking the finest in animated shows.

So set your DVR, care more about Comedy Central, and get ready for brand new Futurama's, the show that does not endorse the cool crime of Robbery!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

I beat this a week ago-ish with my Warrior, Maddox. By the final fight I had hit max level at 30 and was a beast. Darkspawn would fall upon my shield and massive armor and hit me for barely any damage. I was crushing them with my kick ass sword, and my team was decent at backing me up.

But enough about how awesome I am, lets get into the awesome parts of the game. It sets up a little slowly, but once your into the main story line the plot thickens quick. An army of Darkspawn attack the city of Amerantine to the north of the Gray Keep. I roll up there all ready to bust in some darkspawn heads when I find out the city is already overrun and another army is making its way to the Gray Keep. So I have to decide if I want to burn Amaranthine down and go save my Keep or stay here, root out the Darkspawn and let my keep be over-run. Being the saint that I am I tell them to fire burning Ballista and Catapults into the City. Then i got to watch a movie sequence of humans and darkspawn being pulverized and burned alive... it was pretty shitty. Gut check moment 2 comes after savine the Keep you decide that instead of taking your whole crew of bad ass warriors to go kill the "Mother" or as I call her that crazy slug chick with 8 boobs, you decide to take 4 people in. You meet with another Dark Spawn who calls himself the Architecht, its not our first meeting, but this time he wants to talk. He says if we team up and I leave him alive he can make sure the Darkspawn never start a blight against the surface again. I reluctantly agree which pissess off my dwarven rogue who then attacks me... ME, I was a little bumed but at the same time who the F*** does she think she is attacking me. I cut the little ho down and move on. Eventually I kill the Mother and tell the Architect I hate him, but he runs off before I can kill him too. Apparently I missed my opportunity. So I head home job done.

The game then gives the what happens after you rocked the party that rocks the party description. The Dwarves re-take an old city that is full of something, I wasn't paying attention, but I was the reason they grew a pair and took it back. My city was fortified to be the best Keep in the world. The standing army was mostly Gray Wardens except for an elite unit of dudes who had special armor that I commisioned for them. They became known as the Silver Guard. Most of my party members disapeared with out a trace for some reason or another. Except the dumbass who I killed, she was left to rot. I made the Howe kid a noble again, he even helping rebuild Amaranthine. Oghren who never should have been in the damn game stayed a Gray Warden and drank a lot, im not kidding that was his story. Apparnetly the other Gray wardens got all pissed at me for making a deal with a Dark Spawn, but jokes on them, the Architech was on the up and up and there won't be a blight every again, so Maddox(me)decided to shoot everyone the bird and go travel around with Lelianna the bard from Origins who I had a relationship with. All in all the game was pretty kick ass.

Im working on beating Origins now with Imrik my elven ranger/rogue, so I can make some new choices and see where the game goes. Also I can't wait for the next Dragon Age game, which won't come out until 2011.

About Me

I'm an avid gamer, mostly on the miniature side, but i do love a good board game, card game, or an RP. I generally talk about my gaming experiences or local sports depending on what strikes me at any given time.